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As someone who loves talking about elegance so much, I just could not not take this book when I saw it at the library! This book is basically a memento of all of the important ideas of the most prominent personalities of the Parisian Haute Couture. Gabrielle Chanel, Christian Dior, Schiap: everyone has their own part of the book to discuss various topics related to fashion.
A coffee table book, a pleasure for the eyes
That is the type of book I considered buying for myself when I saw the look of it at the library: bright pink with beautiful illustrations inside, printed on a beautiful ans slightly heavy paper and written in the most beautiful, yet easy to read font. This is definitely the type of book you will want to read a few pages of while drinking coffee or waiting for your nail polish to dry.
An interesting book to read
The book is interesting for two main reasons. First, the way it has been written is extremely original: some of the interviews have really been led, but most of them have not. Actually, the book is a work of research based on several interviews led separately and on documents from the time these couturiers lived. I love how it results in what I would call a work of research in an original and less abrupt form. Moreover, it is absolutely no plagiarism and you have access to the sources in the end of each section: a great way to go further if the topics discussed with the couturiers interest you!
I also think that this book is particularly interesting because the topics discussed are very different. Obviously, the interviewees talk about their personal definition of fashion and luxury (which differ a lot from one to the other) but they also discuss more personal topics such as the way they got into fashion and the social environnement they grew up in. Maybe if you already know a lot about these people, you won’t learn much but as someone who had only watched a few documentaries on a few of them, I got a lot out of this book.
An inspiring book
Last but not least, I found this book to be very inspiring. Obviously, that is not a self-help book but it had the same effect on me as most biographies. I think there is something beautiful in reading about another person’s life, hardships and successes. It always motivated me to follow my dreams and work hard. It also made me want to dress better in a time in which distance learning sometimes makes it tricky to really dress up.
The English-speaking Frenchie 